Coinbase CEO Says Lack of Clear Crypto Rules Has Caused ‘Terrible Things,’ Calls for Regulatory Clarity in US

The chief executive of top US-based crypto exchange Coinbase says that the lack of clear crypto guidelines in the US has caused multiple issues within the industry.

In a new interview with CNBC, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says that clear regulatory rules are needed for the US digital assets industry as it continues to burgeon.

According to Armstrong, the lack of clear regulations has caused “terrible things” to happen, such as crypto firms collapsing or moving overseas and the US weakening as a global financial hub.

“Roughly 56 million Americans have used crypto now. That’s about 1 in 5 Americans. Just to give you a sense of scale, about 5x as many Americans have used crypto as have an electric vehicle. This is not some minority thing. It’s a mainstream thing in American society.

We need to have clear rules that recognize the innovation potential of this technology but then also protect consumers from harm. In the absence of that, we have seen terrible things happen. The industry has moved offshores, we’ve seen exchanges blow up, [and] we’ve seen a weakening of America’s dominance as a financial hub, as a technology leader.”

Armstrong goes on to comment about a judge recently ruling in favor of Grayscale in its lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the crypto firm’s application to create a spot market Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).

In the case, the judge ruled that the SEC must reconsider its position of denying Grayscale’s bid to remain consistent. Armstrong, who notes that Coinbase has been named as the custodian in many ETF applications, says that the crypto exchange has much to benefit from the creation of Bitcoin ETFs.

“ETFs have been an important development. Coinbase has an important role to play. We have been named as the custodian in many of these ETF applications. Our view is that it’s going to be really good. It’s going to bring in new sources of capital into the crypto ecosystem. That’s going to be good for crypto, but it’s also going to be good for Coinbase.”

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